ASSUR AND NINEVEH. 169 
poured copper (bronze) therein— 
as in the casting of half-shekel pieces 
I completed theiri ormaticn.” 
What was the improvement which Sennacherib effected ? The 
want of a precise translation renders this doubtful, but we may, 
perhaps, guess that he had come to the conclusion that much 
labour, and also a considerable amount of metal, would be saved 
by casting these objects as a shell round a core of clay which, 
being constructed with a wooden framework, could afterwards 
be removed, and the same employed over and over again. In 
any case, the process here detailed is most interesting, and 
when more is known of the Assyrian technical terms, may even 
add something to our knowledge of the history of bronze-casting. 
Two of these brass colossi, when finally produced, were overlaid 
with what is suggested to have been gilding, and were placed, 
with others of limestone and male and female colossi of alabaster, 
in the gates of the palaces. Numerous other details concerning 
the colossal bulls and lions which the king caused to be made 
follow, and he states that he made columns of bronze, and also 
of all the different kinds of wood which the Assyrians regarded 
as precious, for which the colossi seem to have formed supports, 
and the whole was erected as colonnades (?) in “his lordly 
dwelling.” After this come references, apparently, to the bas- 
reliefs which the king caused to be carved, the slabs being 
described as having been produced wonderfully, and if this be 
the true rendering, the specimens in the British Museum confirm 
Sennacherib’s words concerning them—they are wonderful. 
Next comes Sennacherib’s account of, the irrigation works 
which he constructed. In order to have water daily in abund- 
ance, he caused swinging beams and brazen buckets to be 
fashioned, and having set up the necessary framework over the 
water-reservoirs and attached them thereto, they were used for 
the watering of the fields and plantations. Here we have a 
description of that well-known Eastern apparatus, the shadou/, 
which Sennacherib would seem to have introduced into Assyria 
—it is said from Egypt. 
“« . . . Those palaces I cause to be produced beautifully — 
as for the vicinity of the palace, for the wonderment of 
multitudes of men 
I raised its head—‘ The Palace which has no rival’ 
I called its name.” 
And then comes the description of the surroundings of the 
palace—the great park or plantation “like mount Amanus ” 
M 2 
